Modern Romance February 2020 Books 1-4. Louise Fuller

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СКАЧАТЬ He expected, he wanted perfection and she had a whole pile of flaws. Jai had flaws too but, unlike her, seemed supremely unaware of them. Of course, she rather suspected that his father had been of a very different nature from hers, not the type to linger on his child’s every failing. On that deflating note, Willow fell asleep.

      A smiling, dark-skinned face above hers wakened her with a gentle touch on her shoulder.

      ‘I am your maid, Alisha,’ the young woman informed her, bobbing her head. ‘His Royal Highness the Maharaja will be dining in an hour.’

      Dimly, Willow registered that daylight had gone and wondered in dismay how long she had slept, before glancing at her watch and discovering that she had slept for far longer than she had planned.

      ‘I have run a bath for you…but there is a shower…it is your choice,’ Alisha added with yet another huge good-natured smile. ‘I have also laid out clothes for you.’

      Willow was bemused by being awarded that amount of personal attention until it occurred to her that she was receiving it purely as a mark of respect towards Jai’s wife, a sort of reflected glory she felt ill-prepared to handle. But she would have to learn to handle it, she told herself urgently, because she was living in a formal household crammed with servants and she was always going to be the Maharani of Chandrapur within these walls even if she didn’t feel as though she had any true right to such high status and esteem.

      ‘A bath would be great,’ she agreed, since it had already been run for her, and she sat up to slide her arms into the silky robe being extended for her use, thinking that Shelley would adore hearing about such luxuries because that kind of personal attention was non-existent in the world in which she and her friend had grown up in. Not so much a world, she ruminated wryly, as the school of hard knocks, which had formed them both from childhood.

      Her bathroom was separate from Jai’s, Willow realised with a guilty grimace as she sat in her bath surrounded by floating rose petals and some sort of scented oil. No wonder he had seemed startled by her following him in there to confront him yet again, she conceded, heat flushing her cheeks in sudden mortification. No, arguments when she was overtired and cross were not to be recommended, she conceded ruefully, although she had said nothing that even now, calmer and cooler, she would have been willing to retract.

      Her maid had laid out a long dress for her and Willow winced, getting a hint of what her life was expected to be like in the Lake Palace. She was supposed to dress up simply to dine with her bridegroom. Had she been a more conventional new bride, she would’ve been doing that automatically though, she reflected ironically, an arrow of remorse piercing her that that was not the case between her and Jai. On the surface their marriage might seem normal but underneath it was a sham, bereft of the understanding, love and knowledge that what he had termed ‘a normal marriage’ would need to thrive.

      Alisha directed her downstairs, where Ranjit guided her across the echoing main hallway into yet another splendid room furnished with a formal dining table and chairs. Coloured glass panels portraying a fanciful forest full of fantasy animals decorated the walls and it was wonderfully cool and air-conditioned.

      ‘So, some of this place is air-conditioned,’ Willow remarked as Jai strode in, and in stark comparison to her moreover, barefoot and clad with almost laughable informality in an open-necked red shirt and well-fitted designer jeans that outlined his lean hips and long, powerful thighs. As always, he looked amazing and her breath shortened in her throat as involuntarily she relived the feel of his hot skin below her stroking fingers, the springy softness of his black hair and, ultimately, the crashing intoxicating surge of his mouth on hers.

      Burning up with chagrin inside her own skin, Willow dropped hastily into a chair.

      ‘Yes, those rooms where it was possible without seriously damaging the décor. If you find our bedroom too warm, just tell me. I will make it possible there too, but I do not expect us to spend much time here during the hottest months of the year,’ he imparted smoothly, his dark low-pitched voice, richer than velvet, brushing against skin suddenly pebbling with goose bumps. ‘The summer heat can be unbearable.’

      Willow nodded as a wide selection of little bites was brought in to serve as a first course and Ranjit carefully indicated the spicy items lest they not be to her taste, while Jai talked about the local sights he intended to show her. She tried a sample of flavours while wondering if Jai intended merely to act as though that argument had not taken place, but, once the staff had melted away with delivery of their main course, Jai fell suddenly silent and she glanced up from her plate anxiously to find those wolfish ice-blue eyes locked hard to her.

      ‘There is something I must say,’ he began, uncharacteristically hesitant in tone. ‘There are times when we will perceive events in a dissimilar light because of the different cultures in which we grew up…’

      ‘Obviously,’ Willow breathed tightly.

      ‘The morning after we spent that first night together is one of those events. For me, it was inexcusably wrong to take a woman’s virginity when I was not in a serious relationship with her. I could not treat that as though it was something of no consequence, but I was equally guilty of having made the assumption that you would not be so innocent, living in your more liberal society,’ he completed levelly.

      ‘Jai, I—’ Willow began awkwardly, not having foreseen quite how much of an issue that had genuinely been for him.

      ‘Let me finish,’ he urged, topping up her wine glass with a lithe and elegant hand. ‘I felt very guilty that day. I was deeply ashamed of my behaviour. I took advantage of you when you were grieving and alone and in need of support.’

      ‘It didn’t feel that way to me,’ Willow protested, breaking in.

      ‘We are talking about how it felt to be me that morning,’ Jai reminded her drily. ‘I felt like a total bastard, who had seduced an innocent young woman, and clearly how I felt fed into making you feel rejected and insulted…but that result was not intentional. I remained sincerely concerned for your well-being, which is why I attempted to see you again a couple of months later, by which time you must’ve known you were pregnant.’

      At the reminder, Willow flushed a discomfited brick red. ‘And Shelley lied for me and said she didn’t know where I was because she knew I didn’t want to see you again,’ she filled in for him uneasily. ‘I’m sorry but that was just how I felt back then. I was a bit naive. I was feeling well and I thought I would manage fine without you. Before I forget, can I ask you something off-topic?’

      His winged ebony brows drew together in a frown at that query. ‘You can ask me anything although I cannot always guarantee an answer.’

      ‘Why did I have to get all dressed up in a long fancy gown when you’re wearing jeans and no shoes?’

      And the tension still thick round the table just evaporated then and there as Jai flung his handsome dark head back and laughed with disconcerting appreciation of that simple question. Raking a long-fingered brown hand through his silky black hair, he surveyed her with amusement still glittering like stardust in his bright black-lashed eyes. ‘I can only assume that it was my mother’s practice or my grandmother’s practice to get “all dressed up” for dinner because that is how long it has been since this palace had a mistress. Your maid will have been given advice on what you would want to wear for such an occasion and, since you are English, it may well date back to the years of the British Raj,’ he warned her with a wide smile. ‘And be generations out of date. You don’t need to dress up for dinner for my benefit. You can wear whatever you like, soniyaa.’

      That СКАЧАТЬ